Time Warner bans some gun ads

NEW YORK, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Time Warner Cable no longer will show commercials for semiautomatic weapons, the company said Friday.

In a statement, TWC said the ban includes ads that show guns being pointed at people, MultiChannel News reported.

"We stand by this policy. If it's essential to a business owner to show this kind of imagery in their commercials, there are other advertising options in the marketplace," TWC said.

The mass killing of 20 children and six staffers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December has sparked a new debate on gun control.

A recent commercial sponsored by the National Rifle Association on the Sportsman Channel called President Obama "an elitist hypocrite." The ad suggested Obama should not oppose the NRA's proposal for armed guards in all schools when his own daughters are guarded by armed Secret Service agents.